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Rams, Cowgirls square off for third time in three weeks for trip to MW title game

Top-seeded Colorado State aiming for first championship appearance since 2001

By Sean Star

Reporter-Herald Sports Writer

Posted:
03/14/2014 08:57:42 AM MDT

LAS VEGAS — Proximity, history and a mutual dislike between two teams and their fan bases all help create a great matchup.

But in order for a series to be an authentic rivalry, there has to be balance. A one-sided rivalry isn't much of a rivalry at all.

For the past decade the Wyoming women's basketball team has mostly dominated Colorado State. Entering last Friday's game in Fort Collins, the Cowgirls had won 18 of 20 in the series, including a 26-point win in Laramie on Feb. 22.

That was CSU's worst loss of the season, and it served as a wake-up call.

With eight new players on roster, including six who were born overseas, the Rams were caught off guard a bit, stunned by the intensity of their first Border War in front of an opposing crowd four-times the size of a normal turnout at Moby Arena.

"We tried to tell them about it, and it's just until you play there, until you are playing in that atmosphere, you don't truly understand it," CSU senior forward Sam Martin said. "Especially having a lot of international players, you don't know about the rivalry as much."

The next time the teams met, last Friday in Fort Collins, the Rams posted a 12-point win on senior night before celebrating their regular-season conference title. The Rams were able to even the season series that night largely because they matched the Cowgirls' intensity level and emphasized the rivalry aspect, Martin said after the game.

The teams meet again Friday for the third time in three weeks. Only this time the stakes are much higher, with the winner advancing to the Mountain West tournament championship game.

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CSU coach Ryun Williams says his team is not about to make the same mistake it did three weeks ago when it scored a season-worst 49 points in the blowout loss.

"I think the first time we played them, you can talk to them about it, and yeah, it's a big game, but now they've lived it. They went to Laramie and got ambushed in (front of) 3,500 rowdy, gold fans," Williams said. "Then you saw a different energy level the second time around because they know what this thing means, and I think you'll see the same thing on Friday afternoon."

Being told what to expect and actually experiencing something first hand are two completely different things. And junior guard Gritt Ryder was among several first-year Rams to find this out the hard way with respect to the Border War.

Like her coach, Ryder said her team will again be more prepared to handle the more chaotic atmosphere.

"Even though I thought I was ready for it, just playing Wyoming and playing them again in Fort Collins, we're just way more ready for the rivalry aspect of the game," said Ryder, a transfer from Western Nebraska originally from Rungsted, Denmark.

CSU has a less than stellar history in the MW tournament. Even with Tuesday's last-minute win over Utah State, the Rams are just 11-13 in the event and have reached the championship game just once, beating BYU in 2001.

But against Wyoming, the Rams have actually been pretty good, going 4-2. The Cowgirls, though, had the upper hand last season when they erased a 14-point deficit for a 60-58 win in the quarterfinals.

Martin isn't quick to forget last year's heart-breaking loss that ended her season. But she also knows with so many new players, dwelling on the past won't do her team much good.

"I was actually thinking about going and writing 60-58 on our board before we play. Just be like, 'Please, for me and Hayley (Thompson) and all of us that played in this last year. We're not doing this again,'" Martin said. "But our team this year is a lot different, and we have this mindset going in that we all know what our goals are as a team."

Though his team has played the top-seeded Rams about as well as any in the conference — and his squad will likely have the support of a partisan crowd — Wyoming coach Joe Legerski says he's just hoping his fifth-seeded Cowgirls can keep things close and give themselves a chance at the end.

"Their length is tremendous. They play with so much confidence. It will be a very difficult matchup," Legerski said after his team advanced Tuesday with a five-point win over Boise State. "We're going to have to be at our best on Friday. Hopefully we're still in the game with a couple minutes to go, and maybe the ball bounces our way."

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